He was an architectural school dropout who never got his license and she was a painter that rarely painted yet the husband-and-wife powerhouse of Charles and Ray Eames has become one of the most significant creative practices in the history of modern design. Now, for the first time since their deaths, filmmakers Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey make ‘a definitive and unprecedented cinematic foray into the private world of the Renaissance-style studio that Charles and RayEames conceived in a cavernous warehouse on a gritty street in Venice Beach, CA’ in their recently-released feature-length documentary, Eames: The Architect and the Painter. (more…)

Fri 18.11.

The tallest bridge in the world - Norman Foster's Millau Viaduct; photo by Valentin Alvarez

While he is the man behind some of the most iconic landmarks of 21st-century architecture: the breathtaking Millau Viaduct in France, London’s The Gherkin, Beijing Airport, the pioneering zero-carbon, zero-waste Masterplan for Masdar City in Abu Dhabi or the just-unveiled £50bn Thames Hub project, Norman Foster, alike many of his confrères, is known to be a very private person. Recently however, we were all given a rare glimpse into the half-century-long career of this Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect, thanks to the beautifully shot and hugely inspiring feature-length documentary, How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster?. (more…)

With his documentary about the Berlin Hansaviertel the young Berlin-based film-maker Marian Engler created a chronicle piece about an example of successful and forward-looking architecture in post-war Germany. The film consists of impressive views of houses by Oscar Niemeyer, Arne Jacobsen, Alvar Aalto and others. With interviews of time-wittnesses of the 50’s as well as young residents of the Hansaviertel and architects, among them Oscar Niemeyer himself, Marian Engel tries to figure out if the concept of the ‘city of tomorrow’ works, after all. The film is in German language with English subtitles.

Apartment building by Egon Eiermann, Hansa quater Berlin

Here the synopsis:

In 1957 the first International Construction Exhibition after the war took place in Berlin.

At the „Interbau’57“ 64 world famous architects of the classical modernism came together to realise their vision of a „city of tomorrow“. Under them visionists like Le Corbusier, Oskar Niemeyer, Walter Gropius and Arne Jacobsen.

They did not only want to provide new flats for the bombed out residents. With their plan of a green city-landscape they wanted to create a peaceful and democratic society.

The documentary shows the beginning and the history of the Hansaviertel. It is dedicated to the people who live there today and asks for the success of an international praised role model for town construction. But can you find thehigh ideological requirements of progress, democracy and freedom in the heads of the people who live there today?